Camping in Pinecrest

A couple weeks ago John mentioned that we should go camping.  The girls loved the idea!  Ashlee got on line and tried to find a campground, but everything was either full or had vault toilets (Ashlee did not want to use vault toilets).  The next day I got on line and tried to find a campground.  I found one space open, and by the time I got through the reservation process, it was gone.  Someone else had reserved it instead.  I started looking for the next available weekend and was able to find one available for this weekend, so I reserved it. 
We sold our RV trailer back in February, so this was going to be our first camping trip in a tent, something we have not done for about 7 years.  I was determined that I was not going to bring a bunch of stuff.  I was not going to mess with washing dishes, or even showering for that matter!  We were just going overnight, we needed this to be simple.  For dinner we had foil dinner chicken fajitas (they tasted better than fajita's made at home), for dessert we had campfire cones (very yummy)  and s'mores, and breakfast was cereal, muffins, and donuts.
 Too bad, I could not figure out a way to have the laundry done by the time we got home!  We enjoyed our quick weekend trip.  One last trip for the summer.  The girls started school last week. Harvest started last week too.  Soccer starts this week, so our schedules will be crazy busy.  This is the time of year when I wish there were wither two of me, or a taxi driver to help me out, because it gets to be very hard trying to juggle everything!

Saturday we set up camp, went to the lake and then we went on a hike to the dam.  Spent the evening playing Uno around the campfire.



Making foil dinner chicken fajitas



Taking a break along the trail to the dam.

 Sunday morning we ate breakfast, packed up and took the girls to Lyons Dam to do a little fishing, (they did not catch any fish), before heading home.

Columbia-Weekend Getaway

Last weekend we had reservations to go camping in Columbia since the girls were out of school for Spring Break.  Unfortunately, it rained nearly every day during Spring Break so we canceled our camping plans (we went to the snow instead) and rescheduled them for this weekend.   It was a hot weekend.  Last weekend we needed snow clothes and this weekend we were in shorts and wishing we could get in swimsuits and go swimming.  Unfortunately, the swimming pool at the campground was closed.  They don't open their pool until Memorial Day Weekend. 

Saturday we did some adventuring.  The plan was to go on a hike.  Ashlee got on her Ipod, found a hike on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River, wrote down the directions of how to get there and we were off in the truck to find the hiking trail.  Needless to say, we never found the hiking trail.  We ended up on some one lane uphill, twisty mountain road.  We found a waterfall and a nice view.  We even found cell phone service out on this road in the middle of no where. 

The waterfall:

 The view:

 Since the Ipod directions didn't work so well.  We decided to use the GPS to find the trail.  The GPS led us to the Stanislaus National Forest Office located in downtown Sonora.  I think it's time to update our GPS!  Well since we were half way from the campground and half way to Pinecrest, we decided to head towards Pinecrest and check out the campgrounds along the way.  We eventually ended up in Pinecrest.  It was hot, the girls wanted to get in the lake, but hey What happened to the lake?  Apparently they drain Pinecrest Lake in the winter time (we didn't know this).  So here is what the lake looked like.  They got to play in a little bit of water, but not much because we weren't prepared for swimming!

On the way back to the campground we stopped and got some ice cream in Mi Wuk Village and then headed back to camp to meet  my Mom, Terry, Grandpa Billy and Kay for dinner at El Jardin Mexican Resturant in Columbia. 

That was our short, but sweet weekend getaway trip to Columbia.  Thankfully we made it home without any problems.  As soon as we got home, John unhooked the trailer from the truck.  Went to get in the truck to go to the rabbits, went about 4 feet and the truck died.  The next day we had to have the truck towed to the shop.  Apparently some sensor in the fuel filter housing unit went out.  Luckily we didn't end up stranded somewhere!

Sunset Beach

This weekend we took a short but sweet camping trip to Sunset Beach with Teresa, Danny, Carlee and Preston.  We had never been to Sunset Beach.  In fact we had never heard of the place until Teresa and Danny told us about it a few weeks ago.

Breakfast time

Getting warm by the camp fire after breakfast.
From left to right: Danny, Ashlee, Mikayla, Preston, Teresa and Carlee

Mikayla, Preston, Carlee and Ashlee headed to the beach for a treasure hunt.  Teresa put together some activities for the kids.  They had to find the items listed on their bag.

Carlee and Mikayla heading to the beach

Preston and Ashlee

Socks and shoes are off.  Pants are rolled up.  Off and going on a treasure hunt.

Our Family

Teresa and Mikayla.

John and Mikayla.  Looking for treasures and surfers.

Mikayla with some of her beach treasures.  She is keeping all her beach treasures to show grandma.  She called grandma on the way home to tell her about all the treasures she found.

Ashlee marking off what she found on her bag.

 Aunt Teresa also planned a little volcano experiment. 
Step 1: Dig a hole

 Step 2: Bury a water bottle half full of water in the hole and cover with sand.  Leave the top of the water bottle above the ground though.

 Step 3: Put food coloring in the water bottle.
Step 4: Put banking soda and vinegar in the water bottle.

 Step 5: Watch your volcano errupt.

Preston's Volcano

Mikayla's Volcano

Carlee and Mikayla watching Ashlee's Volcano

 Playing at the beach.  It was cold and breezy.  Mikayla and Preston kept on going though.

 Trying to get warm.  Eating some snacks and playing a game of Go Fish.

 Our site was site 18.  Nice site.  No neighbors next to you or behind you.

 And the weirdest thing of all.  To be camping at the beach and having thousands of acres of farm land right next to you.  Most of this is strawberries.  Not sure how they keep people and critters from eating their crop.   Friday night after dinner we were sitting around the campfire and a racoon came into the campsite, got into the garbage can and took some food.  It was a fat racoon.  I guess he lives well off the crops and the campers!

 Some hitch hikers hitching a ride:)  They had their thumbs out, but I was too slow with the camera.

Needless to say, the trip came to an end way too soon.  A short, but sweet trip.  We hope to be able to go back again sometime soon.  Thanks for inviting us Teresa and Danny.